Many people familiar with 20th Century history know that when the Russian working class overthrew the tsar in February 1917, Lenin was in exile in Switzerland, soon to return to Petrograd in the famous sealed train. But where was Trotsky before returning to the maelstrom?

In the final part of his series on the history and development of money, Adam Booth explores how monetary theories and systems have changed over time in response to crises, and looks at the “solutions” proposed to overcome the contradictions facing the money system today. How do we break the spell of the so-called “root of all evil” and free ourselves from these “chains of gold”?

In the fourth part of his series on the history and development of money, Adam Booth examines the factors lying behind inflation and explores the role of gold as the basis for an international monetary system. As the collapse of the gold standard—and more recently the European single currency—demonstrate, the contradictions of capitalism will eventually always come to the fore.

In the third part of this series on the history of money, Adam Booth looks at the growth of finance, the development of banking, and the role of credit within capitalism. As Booth stresses, the economic problems we face today lie not with an overbloated finance sector, greedy bankers, or a lack of credit, but with the anarchic, chaotic, and crisis-ridden capitalist system.